The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-03-26
BILL ARp's LETTER.
uETALKs IN HIS USUAL HUMOROUS
MANNER
Ne Dilates npon the Need Of Nort
Furmers-He Comes to the Cor
clusion that more Man'Jdctu
rfrs are Needed.
gge Fuiue Of Nanyact"rers--EhVo'
sophicai Sayings, Etc.

pssyblshei BY Special HgFeaRsaiJ
10 we want any more farmers? ?
g,i,a newspapers say we do ana may
hs they know what is best for Us, but
II seems to me we have got enough,
sual as they are. We want better
farmers. We want farmers who can
make farming pay. Njne-tenths of
oar farmers just barely squeeze
a,ang. They don't accumulate-they
can't, 1t takes very smart man to
make any surplus at farming, and
smart men are scarce. Most of our
farmers work hard and do their best,
but not one in ten can get ahead i!
tLspe is dependent family to sup
port, Most Of them get behind and
belong to somebody. They are under
mortgage, Our newspapers make a
BIG fuss over a man who is making
money by farming. His name and
his crop is handed around. There
are about ten in county and there
ought to be a fuss made over them.
They are the exceptions, not the rule.
Those ten have got or have had some
special advantages that the masses of
the farmers have not. Now and then
yeu can find u man who would get
rich anywhere at anything, but he is
ant to be mean and Inscriptions,
Let us take humanity as it is, and it
Is u fact that our farmers are dlscOur-
aged and have reason to be. Row
land rents land from me. He is II
better farmer than the average; he
works hard and never gets tired and
never complains. He has wife and
five small children. He owns q good
mule and q wagon and COW and
some hogs. He never goes in debt.
He owes no man anything, and feels
1. his independence; but Rowland do~s
not make any .surplus-nothing but
slim support. A big doctors bill
would ruin him. If his mule was to
die or some rascal was to steal her,
Rowland wouldn't get over it in five
years. Mrs. Rowland helps her hus-
band all that she can; she raises
fowls and sells chickens and eggs;
she is economical and prudent, and
Rowland is strictly temperate. So
now what is the mhtter? I think
that if the wheat crop had not been
failure last year Rowland would have
gotten ahead a little, but something
fails most every year. If the product
does not fail the price does. With
cotton at eight aud half cents
pound he gets about fifty cents day
for his labor-perhaps less. lie could
get dollar a day in the mines that
are near by. Why is it that every
thing prospers but farming? The
towns and cities are growing rich.
The country keeps poor. Cities get
on L boom and capital flows to them
In a stream, but there is no boom for
the country. No wonder that our
ambitious young men flock to the
towns. / have been writing up the
country for ten years and trying to
sntice our educated, progressive
young men to 60 to the country and
farm intelligently and be happy, but
In vain, They are smarter than
thought. They see the merchant
getting rich and the farmer getting
poorer. and SO they try merchandise
or some other town occupation.
Most everybody is going to town that
can get there. My nabors are all
gone or going. Nabors Aubrey and
freeman and Dobbins and Cotton
and Keever and Montgomery and
Buford used to farm near me, but
they are all gone, gone to town.
Their farms are occupied by some-
body-negroes mainly.
10 you think we want more rarnl.
Srs? Will more farmers make farm
Ing pay betterf Wilt make farming
lands worth more money? Barlow
county averaged ten dollars an acre
few years ago; they don't average
put seven now. VIII more farmers
increase their value? No. The value
OF our lands depends upon what we
make upon them, and we can't make
anything now. The staple crops are
700 low, and we have no market FOR
the side crops or those from the gar
osn and orchard. There Ia too great